Development

News Development

The Fifth Africa Union (AU) – European Union (EU) Summit took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on 29-30 November 2017, in the framework of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy. With a number of key agreements that frame relations between these two leading regional actors under review, this summit came at a crucial time. Trade unions note a number of limitations regarding the space provided to civil society participation at the summit.

This October, Union to Union celebrated four decades of global cooperation between trade unions. A celebratory event was organised to mark the occasion, attended by speakers from partner organisations all over the world.

The Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG) was set up by the United Nations to develop and implement the global indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda. It met for the sixth time in Manama, Bahrain on 11-14 November 2017. The Trade Union Development Cooperation Network has been following this work with intent.

Trade unions, through TUAC and the TUDCN, recently took part in the annual High Level Meeting (HLM) of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which took place in Paris on 30-31 October 2017.

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Caroline Khamati Mugalla (East African Trade Union Confederation - EATUC) talks to RadioLabour about how public budgets are stunted by this illegal form of wealth extraction, which means that governments in developing countries are unable to mobilise resources for public service provision. Ms Mugalla also warns of the implications of turning to Public-Private Partnerships for providing such services, as profit-making interests can often be at odds with that of the greater public good.

Paola Simonetti, coordinator of the Trade Union Development Cooperation Network, talks to RadioLabour about the network’s priorities. A special mention is made to the African Trade Union Development Network.

Alex Nkosi is the author of a recent case study on the use of Official Development Aid (ODA) to promote Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Malawi. The study highlights issues with how PPPs operate in practice that can seriously undermine the original development aims of the investments. It contributed to the TUDCN’s latest report entitled The development effectiveness of supporting the private sector with ODA funds. We spoke to Mr Nkosi to find out more.